Rugby World Cup Tackled by DiGiCo

The Rugby World Cup (RWC) forms part of the small handful of international sporting competitions that commands the attention of 20 nations and millions of viewers with an almost religious fervour every four years.

This year's RWC was hosted by New Zealand and with the competition being broadcast in numerous formats, across several mediums and in countless countries; the real requirement for a world class AV system was quite clear. Scott Willsallen (Principal of Sydney based Technical Production Consultancy Auditoria), was engaged by David Atkins Enterprises (DAE) as the Audio Designer for the RWC. Oceania was the audio supplier working under the direction of Scott Wilsallen and DAE for the project.

Scott had assessed the detailed requirement and chose to utilise two DiGiCo SD8 consoles based on many reasons he notes. "There were many factors in choosing DiGiCo including MADI interconnectivity, channel count, reliability, direct line to DiGiCo and Group Technologies for support; as well as sound quality. Ever since the release of the SD series with the SD7, the expanding range of consoles are industry-leading in every aspect. I have had excellent experience with the SD range of consoles both on fixed installations and on annual event projects, most of which I have re-designed to suit greater use of DiGiCo consoles."

Auditoria has had a long history in handling audio for the RWC and the choice to go with DiGiCo has become more apparent as the project requirements increase each year. "For major events such as Rugby World Cup, I have previously used alternative consoles from other manufacturers which have served me very well over the years. However, as the requirements for these projects continue to grow and the rehearsal time reduces; coupled with my constant desire to improve the quality of the audience experience, the advantages of DiGiCos SD range are very clear."

Above: FOH Operator Ian Shapcott

The decision was made to run the two consoles in a mirrored setup to ensure full redundancy was available given the scale and importance of the event. "Two SD8 surfaces were used in a dual redundant (mirrored) configuration, the primary SD8 was connected to the Optocore network via MADI through an Optocore DD4ME, and the secondary SD8 was connected to the analogue network via standard DiGiCo DiGiRacks. The amplifiers receive an AES signal from the Optocore network and an analogue signal from the analogue network. All switching between primary and secondary signal paths is done in the amplifiers."

Scott felt the performance of the DiGiCo's were excellent and has already specified a similar mirrored configuration for an upcoming event. "Each of the two SD8s were performing both FOH and monitor mixing duties and we were using every available input and output to make it work on a single console. The systems performed flawlessly and I have designed DiGiCo consoles into another major event project later this year in Doha where the two SD8s will be used for FOH mixing in a dual redundant configuration and a single SD7 will be used for monitors using the dual engines for redundancy."

Special thanks also goes out to FOH Operator Ian Shapcott and FOH System Tech Justin Arthur for their much appreciated work during the 2011 RWC.